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Friends,
After posting a review of Military Warehouse's new line of bone buttons and mentioned that I dye my own I've had a few requests to share my method. Here it is...enjoy!
You will need:
- Undyed bone buttons
- Plastic container w/lid (I use a clear plastic salad container)
- Olive oil
- Oil-based leather dye (I use Fiebing's "Walnut" and "Black")
- Liquid dish soap
- Spray-able furniture polish, unscented or lemon (Optional)
- Cotton dish towels that you don't mind being lightly stained with oil dye
Step 1: Clean your undyed bone buttons in warm water and a drop or two of detergent. Drain, rinse well, and let dry on towels.
Step 2: When completely dry, put the buttons into your container of choice and cover with olive oil. Cover and place somewhere out of the way for one to two weeks. The oil will penetrate the bone and helps dye absorption.
Step 3: Once the buttons start to look translucent they're ready to remove from the oil. Drain the olive oil and rinse the buttons in warm water and detergent until they're free of oil. Let dry on towels.
Step 4: When completely dry put the buttons back into your (now cleaned) container. Cover with your choice of oil-based leather dye.** Cover and place somewhere out of the way for one week to a month depending on dye absorption. Give the container a good swirl or shake once a day or two to separate any buttons that are sticking together.
Step 5: Once the buttons are the color you want, drain the dye and rinse the buttons with warm water and detergent. You will have to repeat this step several times, agitating with your hands to help remove residual dye, several times until the water runs clear. Lay them out to dry.
Step 6 (OPTIONAL): I like to turn all of the buttons face-up on a towel and give them a light spray with furniture polish. I then fold the towel together and agitate the buttons to distribute the polish evenly. The result is a slightly darker button with added "depth." You don't have to do this but I prefer the appearance of the finished buttons. They'll be slick and stink like furniture polish for a while but that goes away almost immediately after use/handling.
And that's it! If you have the patience for this method you should have great results.
** Fiebing's "Walnut" oil dye is my personal favorite, and recently I've used their "Black" dye for my Cincinnati Depot tent buttons. Their "Dark Brown" color LOOKS nice in the bottle but in reality contains an awful lot of red....your buttons will turn out looking sort of dark pink-tan!
After posting a review of Military Warehouse's new line of bone buttons and mentioned that I dye my own I've had a few requests to share my method. Here it is...enjoy!
You will need:
- Undyed bone buttons
- Plastic container w/lid (I use a clear plastic salad container)
- Olive oil
- Oil-based leather dye (I use Fiebing's "Walnut" and "Black")
- Liquid dish soap
- Spray-able furniture polish, unscented or lemon (Optional)
- Cotton dish towels that you don't mind being lightly stained with oil dye
Step 1: Clean your undyed bone buttons in warm water and a drop or two of detergent. Drain, rinse well, and let dry on towels.
Step 2: When completely dry, put the buttons into your container of choice and cover with olive oil. Cover and place somewhere out of the way for one to two weeks. The oil will penetrate the bone and helps dye absorption.
Step 3: Once the buttons start to look translucent they're ready to remove from the oil. Drain the olive oil and rinse the buttons in warm water and detergent until they're free of oil. Let dry on towels.
Step 4: When completely dry put the buttons back into your (now cleaned) container. Cover with your choice of oil-based leather dye.** Cover and place somewhere out of the way for one week to a month depending on dye absorption. Give the container a good swirl or shake once a day or two to separate any buttons that are sticking together.
Step 5: Once the buttons are the color you want, drain the dye and rinse the buttons with warm water and detergent. You will have to repeat this step several times, agitating with your hands to help remove residual dye, several times until the water runs clear. Lay them out to dry.
Step 6 (OPTIONAL): I like to turn all of the buttons face-up on a towel and give them a light spray with furniture polish. I then fold the towel together and agitate the buttons to distribute the polish evenly. The result is a slightly darker button with added "depth." You don't have to do this but I prefer the appearance of the finished buttons. They'll be slick and stink like furniture polish for a while but that goes away almost immediately after use/handling.
And that's it! If you have the patience for this method you should have great results.
** Fiebing's "Walnut" oil dye is my personal favorite, and recently I've used their "Black" dye for my Cincinnati Depot tent buttons. Their "Dark Brown" color LOOKS nice in the bottle but in reality contains an awful lot of red....your buttons will turn out looking sort of dark pink-tan!
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